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DEDICATION 


COLONEL    ROBERT   GOULD   SHAW 


MEMORIAL. 


EXERCISES 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  MONUMENT 


COLONEL  ROBERT  GOULD  SHAW 

ANt>    THE 

Fifty-fourth  Regiment  of  Massachusetts  Infantry, 
MAY  U,  1897. 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  CITY  COUNCIL  OF  BOSTON.  I 


BOSTON: 

MUNICIPAL     PRINTING     OFFICE. 

1897. 


lajkB-i-AUl'  HILL,  MASS. 


Q 

Q 


CITY  OF   BOSTON. 


In  Common  Council,  June  3,  1S97. 

Ordered,  That  the  Superintendent  of  Printing,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Committee  on  Printing,  be  directed  to  prepare  and  publish  an  edition  of  twenty- 
five  hundred  cloth  bound  copies  of  a  volume  containing  an  account  of  the 
services  in  connection  with  the  unveiling  of  the  Siiaw  Memorial,  the  expense 
attending  the  same  to  be  charged  to  the  appropriation  for  City  Council 
Incidental  Expenses. 

Passed.     Sent  up  for  concurrence. 

In  Board  of  Aldermen,  June  8. 
Concurred.     Approved  by  the  Mayor,  June  10,   1S97. 

A  true  copy. 

Attest : 

JOHN    TV-  PRIEST, 

Assistant  City   Clerk. 


CONTENTS 


INSCRIPTIONS  UPON  THE  SHAW  MONUMENT      .     .  9 

UNVEILING  OF  THE  MONUMENT 13 

CHIEF  MARSHAL  AND  AIDS I  5 

CEREMONIES  AT  MUSIC  HALL 

ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 1 7 

LIST  OF  INVITED  GUESTS 1 9 

GENERAL  APPLETON'S  REMARKS  2  2 

REPORT  OF  COLONEL  HENRY  LEE 23 

ADDRESS  OF  HIS  EXCELLENCY  GOVERNOR  WOLCOTT  ...  29 

ADDRESS  OF  HIS  HONOR  MAYOR  QUINCY 7,^ 

ORATION  BY  PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  JAMES 39 

ADDRESS  OF  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 57 

HISTORY  OF  THE  SHAW  MONUMENT,  by  the  Treas- 
urer of  the  Fund 65 


UNVEILING   OF   THE   SHAW 
MONUMENT 

MAY  31,   1897 


o^ 


INSCRIPTIONS  UPON  THE 
SHAW  MONUMENT 


PON  the  bronze  an  inscription  taken  by  the  artist  from 
the  seal  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  of  which 
Colonel  Robert  G.  Shaw  was  a  member : 


OMNIARELINQVIT 

SERVAREREMPVBLICAM 


Underneath  the  main  bronze : 

ROBERTGOULDSHAW 

COLONEL-OFTHEFIFTY-FOURTH-REGIMENTOFMASSACHUSETTS 

INFANTRY- BORN  •  IN  •  BOSTON  •  10 -OCTOBER-M-D-CC-C- XXX  VI I 

KILLED-  WHILE  ■  LEADING  ■  THE  •  ASSAULT  ■  ON  ■  FORT  ■  WAGNER 

S0UTHCAR0LINAT8-JULYMD-CC-C-LXIII 


Underneath,  the  verse  of  James  Russell  Lowell : 

RIGHT-IN-THE-VAN-ON-THERED-RAMPART'S-SLIPPERY-SWELL 
WITH-HEART-THAT-BEAT-A-CHARGE-HE-FELL 

FOEWARD  •  AS  •  FITS  •  A  •  MAN 
BUT  •  THE-  HIGH  .  SOUL .  BURNS  •  ON  ■  TO  •  LIGHT .  MEN'S  •  FEET 
WHERE  •  DEATH  •  FOR  •  NOBLE  •  ENDS  •  MAKES  •  DYING  ■  SWEET 

9 


INSCRIPTIONS    Upon  the  back  of  the  frame  of  the  tablet  the  following  inscription 
upon  the         composed  by  Charles  W.  Eliot: 

SHAW  MONU-  r 


MENT 


TO  THE  FIFTY-FOURTH  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 

REGIMENT  INFANTRY 


THE  WHITE  OFFICERS 

TAKING  LIFE  AND  HONOR  IN  THEIR  HANDS  CAST  IN  THEIR  LOT  WITH  MEN  OF 

A  DESPISED  RACE  UNPROVED  IN  WAR  AND  RISKED  DEATH  AS  INCITERS  OF 

SERVILE    INSURRECTION    IF    TAKEN    PRISONERS  •  BESIDES    ENCOUNTERING 

ALL  THE  COMMON  PERILS  OF  CAMP  MARCH  AND  BATTLE- 

THE  BLACK  RANK  AND  FILE 
VOLUNTEERED  WHEN  DISASTER  CLOUDED  THE  UNION  CAUSE  •  SERVED 
WITHOUT  PAY  FOR  EIGHTEEN  MONTHS  TILL  GIVEN  THAT  OF  WHITE  TROOPS- 
FACED  THREATENED  ENSLAVEMENT  IF  CAPTURED  •  WERE  BRAVE  IN  ACTION- 
PATIENT  UNDER  HEAVY  AND  DANGEROUS  LABORS  •  AND  CHEERFUL  AMID 
HARDSHIPS  AND  PRIVATIONS- 
TOGETHER 
THEY  GAVE  TO  THE  NATION  AND  THE  WORLD  UNDYING  FROOF 
THAT  AMERICANS  OF  AFRICAN  DESCENT  POSSESS  THE  PRIDE  COURAGE 
AND  DEVOTION  OF  THE  PATRIOT  SOLDIER -ONE  HUNDRED  AND  EIGHTY 
THOUSAND  SUCH  AMERICANS  ENLISTED  UNDER  THE  UNION  FLAG  IN 
M-D-C-C-C-LXI.il— M-D-C-C-C-LXV 


Underneath,  upon  the  bach  of  the  terrace  are  the  names  of  the  five 
officers  of  the  regiment  who  with  Colonel  Shaw  were  hilled  in 
battle  or  died  while  in  the  service  : 

CABOT- JACKSON-RUSSEL  WILLIAM-  HARRIS-SIMPKINS 

CAPTAIN  CAPTAIN 

EDWARD-LEWIS-STEVENS  DAVID-REID 

1ST  LIEUTENANT  1ST  LIEUTENANT 

FREDERICK-  HEDGE-  WEBSTER 

2ND  LIEUTENANT 

IO 


Immediately  ^underneath  these  names  is  given  an  extract  from  the  inscriptions 

address  of  Governor  Andrew  on  the  departure  of  the  regiment: 

J  r  j  i>  SHAW  MONU- 

MENT 
I  KNOW-NOT  -MR  -COMMANDER- WHERE  -IN-  ALL-  HUMAN-  HISTORY-  TO  -ANY 
GIVENTHOUSAND-MEN-IN-ARMS-THERE-HAS-BEEN-COMMITTED-A-WORK-AT 
ONCE-  SO-  PROUD .  SO  •  PRECIOUS-  SO  •  FULL-  OF  •  HOPE  -AND-  GLORY  •  AS  •  THE 
WORKCOMMITTED-TO-YOU  governor  Andrew 

On  the  warble  at  one  end  of  the  terrace  the  words  of  Mrs.  Water- 
ston  : 

O-FAIR-HAIREDNORTHERN-HERO  ••  WITH-THY-GUARD-OF-DUSKY-HUE 
UP- FROM-  THE  -FIELD -OF  •  BATTLE  ••  RISE  •  TO  •  THE  •  LAST  •  REVIEW 

On  the  marble  at  the  other  end  of  the  terrace  the  zvords  of  Emer- 
son : 

ST  AINLESS-SOLDIER-ON-THE- WALLS- KNOWING-THIS-AND-KNOWS-NO-MORE 
WHOEVER-FIGHTS-WHOEY£R-FALLS  ••  JUSTICE-CONQUERS-EVERMORE 


II 


UNVEILING  OF  THE   MONUMENT  TO 
COLONEL   ROBERT   G.   SHAW 


CHIEF  MARSHAL 

Francis  H.  Appleton. 

ADJUTANT  GENERAL 

James  T.  Soutter. 

HONORARY  MILITARY  STAFF 

Colonel  Charles  F.  Morse. 
Colonel  Robert  H.  Stevenson. 
Colonel  James  Francis. 
Major  Henry  L.  Higginson. 

MILITARY  AIDS 
(Members  of  Governor  Wokotfs  Staff) 
Colonel  Gordon  Dexter, 

with  7th  Regiment,  N.  G.  S.  N.  Y.,  and  1st  Cadets, 

M.  V.  M. 
Colonel  Edward  B.  Robins, 

with  Battalion  of  Survivors. 
Colonel  Frank  E.  Locke, 

with  United  States  Forces. 
Colonel  Richard  D.  Sears, 

with  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Militia. 


UNVEILING  OF 
THE  SHAW 

MONUMENT. 


J.  S.  Russell. 
W.  Cameron  Forbes. 
R.  L.  Agassiz. 
Copley  Amory. 
R.  H.  Hallowell. 
Theodore  Lyman,  Jr. 
T.  G.  Stevenson. 
S.  E.  Courteney. 
F.  H.  Kennard. 
Chester  C.  Rumrill. 
Robert  Walcott. 
Alexander  H.  Higginson. 
J.  Bertram  Read. 


MOUNTED  AIDS 

George  L.  Peabody,  Chief. 
R.  E.  Forbes. 


D.  H.  Coolidge,  Jr. 
R.  S.  Codman. 
Alexander  H.  Ladd. 
Frank  W.  Hallowell. 
T.  P.  Curtis. 
B.  B.  Crowninshield. 
Henry  A.  Curtis. 
George  Francis  Curtis. 
Thomas  E.  Sherwin. 
Clement  Morgan. 
Edward  W.  Atkinson. 


AIDS  IN  MUSIC  HALL 

Elliot  C.  Lee,  Chief. 


J.  Mott  Hallowell. 
Hugh  Williams. 
J.  Lowell  Putnam. 


Joseph  Warren. 
John  Warren. 
Walter  Briggs. 


1 6 


CEREMONIES 

INCIDENT   TO 
THE  UNVEILING  OF  THE 

COLONEL  ROBERT  G.  SHAW 

MONUMENT 

AT 
MUSIC  HALL,   BOSTON,   MONDAY,  31   MAY,   1897 

ORDER    OF  EXERCISES 

Music Patriotic  Airs    ....     Instrumental 

Meeting  called  to  order  by  the  Chief  Marshal,  and  the 

Chairman  of  the  Committee   on  the   Monument 

called  to  preside. 
Prayer  ....     Rev.  Edward  H.  Hall,  Chaplain  of  the  Bay 
Greeting  to  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  Roger  Wol- 

cott,     and    Transfer   of   the    Monument    to    His 

Honor  the  Mayor   of   Boston,  by  the  Chairman 

of  the  Committee. 
Address  of  His  Excellency,  Governor  Wolcott,  Presiding  Officer 
Acceptance  by  His  Honor,  Mayor  Quincy. 

Chorus «  Our  Heroes  " 

Oration      .     .     .   Prof.  William  James,  of  Harvard  University 

Chorus «  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic  " 

Address      .  Pres.  Booker  T.  Washington,  of  Tuskegee  Institute 
Music America* Instrumental 

*A11  joined  in  singing  the  air. 


CEREMONIES    AT    MUSIC    HALL 


EATED    upon  the   platform  were   the  fol- 
lowing guests :  — 

Gen.  George  L.  Andrews. 
Gen.  F.  H.  Appleton. 
Edward  Atkinson. 


Col.  G.  M.  Barnard. 
Hon.  A.  W.  Beard. 
Admiral  Geo.  E.  Belknap. 
Maj.  George  Blagden. 
Maj.  Louis  Cabot. 
Lieut.  C.  P.  Clark,  U.  S.  N. 
Col.  Charles  R.  Codman. 
Capt.  Henry  N.  Conrey. 
Joseph  A.  Conry,  President 

Common  Council. 
Lieut.  James  W.  Cooke. 
Lieut.-Gov.  Crane. 
Edward  Parker  Deacon. 
Perlie  A.   Dyer,  Chairman 

Board  of  Aldermen. 
President  Charles  W.  Eliot. 
Col.  J.  M.  Ellis. 
William  Endicott,  Jr. 
Col.  W.  H.  Forbes. 


Capt.  John  A.  Fox. 
Col.  James  Francis. 
Hosea  Gray. 
Maj.  J.  C.  Gray. 
Col.  Joseph  W.  Gel  ray. 
Rev.  Edward  H.  Hall. 
Col.  N.  P.  Hallowell. 
Capt.  Francis  L.  Higginson. 
Col.  H.  L.  Higginson. 
Col.  O.  W.  Holmes. 
Capt.  Edward  H.  Holt. 
Surg.  John  Homans. 
Col.  Henry  N.  Hooper. 
Col.  Charles  H.  Hopper. 
Col.  Charles  P.  Horton. 
Com.  Howison,  Navy  Yard. 
William  Jackson,  City  En- 
gineer. 
Prof.  William  James,  Orator. 


ceremonies       M.  P.  Kennard. 

AT  MUSIC  HALL 


Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence. 

Win.  P.  Lawrence,  Presi- 
dent of  Senate. 

Col.  Henry  Lee. 

John  M.  Little. 

Col.  Thomas  L.  Livermore. 

Gen.  Charles  G.  Loring. 

Herbert  Lyman. 

Lieut.  Wm.  T.  McAlpine. 

Capt.  Dennis  Meehan. 

Lieut.  George  W.  Moore. 

Col.  C.  F.  Morse. 

Col.  T.  L.  Motley. 

Gen.  Robert  S.  Oliver. 

George  L.  Osgood,  Leader 
of  Chorus. 

Gen.  John  C.  Palfrey. 

Theodore  K.  Parker. 

Gen.  Charles  L.  Peirson. 

Lieut.  Richard  Pendergast. 

Capt.  George  Perkins,  U. 
S.N. 


Hon.  E.  L.  Pierce. 

Col.  George  Pope. 

Mayor  Josiah  Quincy. 

Col.  A.  A.  Rand. 

Gen.  John  H.  Reed. 

Capt.  Morris  P.  Richardson. 

Royal  E.  Robbins. 

Col.  Edward  B.  Robins. 

John  C.  Ropes. 

Col.  Thomas  Sherwin. 

Maj.  J.  L.  Stackpole. 

Gen.  Hazard  Stevens. 

Col.  Robert  H.  Stevenson. 

Augustus  St.  Gaudens. 

Capt.  Howard  Stockton. 

Col.  Lincoln  R.  Stone. 

Wilson  B.  Strong. 

Brig.-Gen.  Stryker. 

J.  L.  Thorndike. 

Hon.  Winslow  Warren. 

Gen.  Stephen  M.  Weld. 

Governor  Roger  Wolcott. 

Booker  T.  Washington. 


20 


OF   COLONEL   HENRY   LEE 
ACTING   CHAIRMAN 


HORTLY  after  12.20  p.  m.,  when  the  Germania  Band 
had  concluded  several  patriotic  airs,  the  Chief  Mar- 
shal, Francis  H.  Appleton,  called  to  order  those 
assembled,  who  more  than  filled  the  hall,  and  said  :  — 
"  I  deem  it  a  high  honor  to  be  permitted  to  call  to  order  this 
vast  and  distinguished  audience,  myself  a  soldier  of  modern 
times  in  the  presence  of  these  veterans  of  war.  I  esteem  it 
a  further  honor,  and  pleasure,  to  present  to  you  as  temporary 
Chairman,  Colonel  Henry  Lee,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Subscribers,  and  a  member  of  our  war  Governor  John  A.  An- 
drew's staff. 


REPORT   OF   COLONEL    HENRY    LEE 

ACTING    CHAIRMAN 


OU  are  too  partial  in  calling  me  chairman 
of  the  committee.  I  wish  the  chairman, 
John  M.  Forbes,  were  here,  —  a  man  iden- 
tified with  Governor  Andrew  from  the  cold, 
chilly  morning  of  preparation  to  the  last 
review  of  the  army  in  Washington.  I  say  deliberately 
that  there  was  no  citizen  of  the  Commonwealth  who  ren- 
dered more  varied,  more  continuous,  more  valuable  ser- 
vice during  the  war  than  John  M.  Forbes.  To  the 
State  "  his  purse,  his  person,  his  extremest  means  lay  all 
unlocked  to  her  occasions."  Unfortunately,  old  age  has 
arrested  him  and  prevented  him  from  taking  his  place 
as  chairman  this  morning. 

Friends,  more  than  twenty  years  ago  the  subscribers 
appointed  a  committee  with  full  powers  to  procure  a  fit- 
ting testimonial  to  Col.  Robert  G.  Shaw  and  his  brave 
black  soldiers.  That  committee  has  completed  its  task. 
It  has  invited  the  subscribers,  the  family  and  friends  of 
the  hero,  with  the  remnant  of  his  followers,  some  of  his 
old  comrades  in  arms,  and  all  others  interested,  to  listen 
to  its  final  report,  to  look  upon  the  memorial  they  have 
procured,  to  discharge  the  committee  from  further  labors, 
and,  if  so  minded,  to  crown  them  with  approbation. 


report  of  We  ask  your  Excellency  to  preside  on  this  occasion  as 

cor  ONFT 

henry  lee  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  especially 
as  the  successor  to  our  great  war  governor  —  the  gov- 
ernor who  was  the  first  to  prepare  for  war,  the  first  to 
prepare  for  peace,  the  first  to  urge  the  policy  of  emanci- 
pation as  a  war  measure,  the  first  to  insist  upon  the  right 
and  duty  of  the  colored  men  to  bear  arms,  feeling  that 
not  only  the  liberties  of  the  colored  men,  but  that  the 
destinies  of  the  country  itself  were  involved  in  this  ques- 
tion. 

When,  after  two  years'  delay,  the  official  sanction  was 
granted,  he  hastened  to  organize  regiments,  to  watch 
over  them  and  contend  for  their  rights,  —  promised  and 
withheld. 

"  The  monument,"  said  Governor  Andrew  in  his  call  for 
subscriptions,  "  is  intended  not  only  to  mark  the  public 
gratitude  to  the  fallen  hero,  who  at  a  critical  moment  as- 
sumed a  perilous  responsibility,  but  also  to  commemorate 
that  great  event  wherein  he  was  a  leader,  by  which  the 
title  of  colored  men  as  citizen  soldiers  was  fixed  beyond 
recall." 

Time  is  wanting  to  detail  the  labors,  anxieties,  and  dis- 
appointments, the  weary  delays  encountered,  the  anti- 
pathy and  incredulity  of  the  army  and  the  public  at  the 
employment  of  colored  men  as  soldiers ;  the  outrageous 
injustice  of  the  Government  to  the  colored  soldiers  even 
after  the  bloody  assault  on  Fort  Wagner,  and  the  final 
triumph  of  the  governor,  only  after  a  long  legal  strug- 
gle, and  after  he  and  his  colored  soldiers  had  passed 
through  great  anxiety  and  misery. 

"  I  was  opposed  on  nearly  every  side  when  I  first  fa- 
vored the  raising  of  colored  regiments,"  said  President 
Lincoln  to  General  Grant,  and  no  one  can  appreciate  the 
heroism  of  Colonel  Shaw  and  his  officers  and  soldiers 
without  adding  to  the  savage  threats  of  the  enemy,  the 

24 


disapprobation  of  friends,  the  antipathy  of  the  army,  the  £EPORT  OF 
sneers  of  the  multitude  here,  without  reckoning  the  fire  henry  LEE 
in  the  rear  as  well  as  the  fire  in  front.     One  must  have 
the  highest  form  of  courage  not  to  shrink  from  such  dis- 
maying  solitude. 

As  to  the  fallen  hero  who  "  had  put  on  the  crown 
of  martyrdom,"  the  governor  had  selected  him,  after 
deliberation,  from  a  family  consecrated  to  patriotism  ;  had 
admired  his  heroism  and  was  heartsick  at  his  loss. 

To  express  the  universal  grief  at  that  loss  and  the  ap- 
preciation of  the  great  event  in  which  he  was  a  leader, 
this  monument  has  been  erected. 

The  State,  through  Governor  Long,  generously  offered 
to  the  committee  an  admirable  site  for  the  monument, 
but  upon  examination  this  was  declined  lest  the  State 
House  grounds  should  be  disfigured.  In  this  emergency 
the  city  came  to  our  rescue,  and  not  only  furnished  the 
ground,  but  made  a  liberal  contribution  of  the  terrace 
and  framework  of  the  monument.  We  therefore  must 
turn  to  you,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  transfer  to  your  Honor  this 
precious  memorial. 

A  generation  has  passed  since  this  great  work  was 
contemplated.  It  is  over  twenty  years  since  it  was  en- 
trusted to  the  committee  which  I  represent,  and  twelve 
years  since  it  was  confided  to  the  sculptor,  Mr.  St. 
Gaudens.  Two  years  was  the  time  allotted  for  its  com- 
pletion. These  two  years  have  lengthened  into  twelve,  a 
period  of  great  anxiety  for  the  committee  lest  they  should 
not  survive  to  accomplish  their  task,  or,  what  was  more 
important,  lest  the  sculptor  should  be  taken  away,  with 
his  work  unfinished.  Those  twelve  years  have  been  im- 
proved by  the  artist,  whose  inexorable  conscience  com- 
pelled him  to  prolong  his  labors  at  all  hazards  until  his 
ideal  should  be  realized. 

25 


report  of  Your  Honor  has  witnessed  the  unveiling  of  the  monu- 

henry  lee         merit,  and  will,  I  am  sure,  congratulate  us  that,  thanks  to 
the  sculptor,  we  have  builded  better  than  we  knew. 

No  sweeter  praise  could  be  craved  by  any  artist  than 
the  eulogy  pronounced  upon  his  work  by  the  mother  of 
the  hero. 

"  You  have  immortalized  my  native  city,  you  have  im- 
mortalized my  dear  son,  you  have  immortalized  your- 
self." 


26 


ADDRESS 

OF   HIS    EXCELLENCY    ROGER   WOLCOTT 
GOVERNOR    OF    MASSACHUSETTS 


9 


ADDRESS  OF  HIS  EXCELLENCY 
ROGER  WOLCOTT 

GOVERNOR   OF    MASSACHUSETTS 


R.  CHAIRMAN,  Members  of  the  Commit- 
tee, Fellow-Citizens :  I  esteem  it  a  signal 
honor  and  privilege  to  be  called  upon  to 
bear  part  in  these  impressive  services.  We 
are  met  to  commemorate  not  only  a  gallant, 
noble  death,  —  not  alone  the  gallant  deaths  of  those  who 
fell  side  by  side  with  Col.  Robert  G.  Shaw,  —  but  we  are 
here  to  commemorate  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  a  race. 

On  the  blood-stained  earthworks  of  Fort  Wagner  a 
race  was  called  into  sudden  manhood.  Even  those 
whose  hearts  had  yearned  with  the  strongest  sympathy 
and  pity  to  the  colored  race  had,  up  to  that  time,  re- 
garded as  their  leading  characteristics  a  meek  resigna- 
tion, a  patient  submission  to  wrong.  On  that  day  the 
world  learned  to  know  that  whatever  the  color  of  the 
skin,  the  blood  that  flowed  in  the  veins  of  the  colored 
man  was  red  with  the  lusty  hue  of  manhood  and  of 
heroism.  When  Abraham  Lincoln,  for  the  second  time, 
took  upon  himself  the  great  responsibility  of  the  presi- 
dency, he  spoke,  in  language  that  still  thrills  with  a 
deep  pathos  and  with  lofty  faith,  the  following  words  : 
"  If  God  wills  that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  continue 
until  all  the  wealth   piled  by  the  bondmen's   two  hun- 


WOLCOTT 


address  of  dred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and 
cy,  Roger  ~  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be 
paid  by  a  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was 
said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said, 
"  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether." 

The  great  price  was  paid,  —  the  price  of  heaped-up 
treasure,  the  price  of  blood  drawn  from  the  veins  of  the 
generous  and  gallant  youth  of  the  land.  But  no  heart 
to-day,  howsoever  deeply  wounded,  can  grudge  that  price. 
Willingly  and  gladly  it  was  given,  and  it  is  not  with 
sorrow,  but  with  joy,  that  we  commemorate  the  sacrifice. 

And  so  it  is  with  joyful  and  thankful  hearts  that  we 
remember  the  great  deed  which  is  to-day  commemorated. 
Sleep  well,  noble  and  heroic  dead  !  Live  long,  equally 
noble  and  heroic  survivors.  Like  those  who  fell,  you 
held  out  your  lives  a  sacrifice  to  country,  and  a  grateful 
nation  treasures  your  act  as  a  part  of  her  undying  fame. 

The  beautiful  monument  which  we  have  witnessed 
unveiled,  in  which  the  sculptor,  with  the  hand  of  genius 
seems  to  have  caught,  as  if  by  inspiration,  and  to  have 
fixed  in  permanent  bronze,  the  very  spirit  of  that  sacri- 
fice —  that  monument  becomes  to-day  the  property  of 
the  city  of  Boston.  I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  to 
you  His  Honor  Mayor  Quincy. 


30 


life  wsm 

ADDRESS 

OF   HIS  HONOR  JOSIAH   OUINCY 
MAYOR  OF   BOSTON 


ADDRESS  OF  HIS  HONOR,  JOSIAH 
QUINCY 

MAYOR   OF   BOSTON 


OUR  Excellency,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 
On  this  national  aniversary,  dedicated  to 
the  memory  of  those  who  died  that  their 
country  might  live,  and  that  its  free  soil 
might  no  longer  be  trodden  by  the  foot  of 
any  slave,  we  have  our  own  especial  commemoration  of 
one  of  the  most  notable  events  in  the  history  of  Boston. 
Thirty-four  years  ago,  almost  to  the  very  day,  our  city 
witnessed  the  culmination  of  the  anti-slavery  agitation  of 
which  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  she  had  been  the  centre. 
Tongue  and  pen  had  here  done  their  full  work  for  hu- 
man freedom ;  by  other  weapons  and  on  other  ground 
was  the  final  issue  to  be  determined.  The  time  had 
come  when  the  worthiness  of  men  with  black  skins  to 
bear  arms  and  to  be  received  into  the  fellowship  of 
military  service  was  to  be  put  to  the  trial ;  when  their 
courage  and  endurance  were  to  be  subjected  to  the 
supreme  test  of  the  battlefield.  And  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts — to  her  eternal  honor  —  dared  to  en- 
trust her  white  flag  to  their  keeping,  and  to  place  one  of 
her  chivalry  at  their  head.  A  negro  regiment,  the  first 
raised  by  any  Northern  State,  marched  through  our 
streets,    bound   for  the  front,  with   Robert  G.  Shaw  in 


address  of  command.  The  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the  enfran-  » 
josiah  qui'ncy  chisement  of  a  race  was  here  given  when  the  fugitive 
slave,  transformed  into  a  soldier  by  authority  of  a  liberty- 
loving  State,  went  forth  to  bear  his  part  in  maintaining 
the  union  of  the  nation  and  winning  the  freedom  of  his 
people. 

Two  months  later  the  answer  to  the  question  whether 
the  negro  could  fight  and  die  for  his  country,  like  the 
white  man,  came  back,  written  in  letters  of  blood,  from 
the  ramparts  of  Fort  Wagner;  and  a  mighty  army  of 
colored  troops,  no  inconsiderable  factor  in  the  attainment 
of  the  victory  of  the  North,  followed  where  Colonel  Shaw 
and  the  54th  Massachusetts  had  led  the  way. 

A  common  trench  in  the  soil  of  South  Carolina,  upon 
the  battle  ground  which  has  been  well  called  the 
Bunker  Hill  of  the  colored  race,  was  the  fitting  sepul- 
chre of  white  and  black,  of  officer  and  private.  To-day 
we  raise  their  monument,  not  over  this  far-off  and 
unmarked  grave,  but  here  upon  the  corner  of  Boston 
Common,  where  began  the  march  that  ended  for  them 
at  Wagner.  Facing  the  Capitol  of  the  State  in  whose 
service  they  were  mustered  in,  on  the  spot  where 
Governor  Andrew  reviewed  them  and  sent  them  forth 
with  the  godspeed  of  the  Commonwealth,  we  place  this 
memorial,  —  not  as  a  mere  likeness  of  the  face  and  form 
of  Shaw,  but  as  a  monument  to  the  soul  of  the  regiment 
which  he  led,  as  an  expression  of  the  great  idea,  of  the 
high  purpose  which  called  it  into  being. 

Once  more  it  marches  to-day  with  full  ranks,  its  sur- 
vivors again  passing  through  the  streets  which  first  knew 
their  martial  tread  a  third  of  a  century  ago,  the  dead, 
recalled  to  life  by  the  genius  of  the  sculptor,  again 
marching  by  the  side  of  their  heroic  young  commander. 

"  The  rest,"  says  the  dying  Hamlet,  "  is  silence."  Yet 
from  that  silence  beyond  the  grave  —  silence  to  us  only 

34 


because  our  ears  are  not  yet  attuned  to  its  harmonies  —  address  of 

.  J    .  .  .  HIS  HONOR, 

there  come  some  living  voices,  repeating  their  message  josiah  quincy 

to  generation  after  generation.     Such,  I  think,  will  be 

the  voice  of  Shaw,  speaking  through  those  closed  lips  of 

bronze.     It  is  not  often  those  whom  the  world  esteems 

the  most  successful,  or  the  greatest,  who  leave  the  most 

valuable  examples  and  lessons  to  posterity.     It  is  rather 

the  man  whose  life  or  death  touches  some  deep  chord  of 

universal  sympathy,  or  appeals  to  the  imagination  or  the 

sentiment   of  all  mankind.     When   far  greater  soldiers 

are   forgotten,    our   descendants    will    still    cherish    the 

memory  of  the  gallant  youth  who  fell  "  with  his  hurts 

before,"  leading  a  hopeless  charge,  blazing  the  path  of 

freedom  for  a  race  in  bondage. 

Col.  Henry  Lee :  On  behalf  of  the  city  of  Boston,  I 
now  gratefully  accept  the  gift,  precious  alike  as  a  memo- 
rial of  the  heroic  dead  and  as  a  noble  work  of  art,  which 
you,  on  behalf  of  the  committee  which  has  so  long  had 
its  execution  in  charge,  have  just  placed  in  her  keeping. 
May  it  stand  in  its  place,  telling  its  great  and  simple 
story,  while  this  city  shall  stand.  I  extend  to  you,  sir, 
who  stood  by  the  side  of  Governor  Andrew,  in  whose 
great  heart  this  regiment  had  its  birth,  at  whose  call 
Shaw  assumed  its  command,  my  felicitations  at  having 
lived  to  see  the  dedication  of  this  monument,  which  is  in. 
no  small  measure  a  memorial  to  the  war  governor  whom 
you  assisted  in  his  great  task. 

I  should  fall  short  of  my  duty  on  this  occasion  if  I 
failed  also  to  express  the  thanks  of  the  city  to  the  sculp- 
tor, Augustus  St.  Gaudens,  who  has  made  the  execution 
of  this  great  work  his  chief  concern  through  so  many 
years,  largely  as  a  labor  of  love,  and  to  congratulate  him 
upon  its  more  than  successful  completion.  May  the 
lesson  which  it  teaches  sink  more  deeply  into  the  hearts 

35 


address  of       of  our  people  as  years  °:o  by.     If  they  ever  doubt  as  to 

HIS  HONOR,  .  /  r    A  •  vl-      1   '       4-'/  i.'  •£    ^1 

josiah  quincy  the  future  ot  American  political  institutions,  it  they  ever 
despair  of  the  republic,  may  they  here  gather  new  inspi- 
ration and  courage ;  may  they  here  more  fully  realize 
that  the  country  of  freemen  which  was  worth  dying  for 
a  generation  ago  is  worth  living  for  now  and  hereafter. 
And  let  us  here  catch  the  forward  step  of  the  54th  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  serve,  in  whatever  manner  the  peaceful 
opportunities  of  our  time  may  permit,  under  the  sarne 
glorious  colors  which  it  bore. 


36 


ORATION 

BY   PROFESSOR   WILLIAM   JAMES 
OF   HARVARD   UNIVERSITY 


OVERNOR  WOLCOTT:  In  that  splendid  charge 
at  Fort  Wagner,  side  by  side  with  those  to  whom 
was  given  the  happy  destiny  of  an  heroic  death, 
were  others,  white  and  black,  who  like  them  gladly 
held  out  their  lives  a  willing  offering  to  Fate.  Among  these, 
wounded  but  not  dead,  fell  Adjutant  James.  It  is  fitting  that 
the  committee  should  have  selected  his  brother,  Professor 
William  James  of  Harvard  University,  to  tell  the  story  that  is 
commemorated  in  this  monument. 


ORATION    BY     PROFESSOR    WILLIAM 

JAMES 


OUR  Excellency,  your  Honor,  Soldiers  and 
Friends  :  In  these  unveiling  exercises  the 
duty  falls  to  me  of  expressing  in  simple 
words  some  of  the  feelings  which  have 
actuated  the  givers  of  St.  Gaudens'  noble 
work  of  bronze,  and  of  briefly  recalling  the  history  of 
Robert  Shaw  and  of  his  regiment  to  the  memory  of  this 
possibly  too  forgetful  generation. 

The  men  who  do  brave  deeds  are  usually  unconscious 
of  their  picturesqueness.  For  two  nights  previous  to 
the  assault  upon  Fort  Wagner,  the  54th  Massachusetts 
Regiment  had  been  afoot,  making  forced  marches  in  the 
rain  ;  and  on  the  day  of  the  battle  the  men  had  had  no 
food  since  early  morning.  As  they  lay  there  in  the  evening 
twilight,  hungry  and  wet,  against  the  cold  sands  of  Morris 
Island,  with  the  sea-fog  drifting  over  them,  their  eyes 
fixed  on  the  huge  bulk  of  the  fortress  looming  darkly 
three  quarters  of  a  mile  ahead  against  the  sky,  and  their 
hearts  beating  in  expectation  of  the  word  that  was  to 
bring  them  to  their  feet  and  launch  them  on  their  des- 
perate charge,  neither  officers  nor  men  could  have  been 
in  any  holiday  mood  of  contemplation.  Many  and  dif- 
ferent must  have  been  the  thoughts  that  came  and  went 
in  them  during  that  hour  of  bodeful  reverie  ;  but  however 
free  the  flights  of  fancy  of  some  of  them  may  have  been, 


oration  by        it  is  improbable  that  any  one  who  lay  there  had  so  wild 

PROFESSOR  i       i  •   i  •  ...  c 

William  james  and  whirling  an  imagination  as  to  foresee  m  prophetic 
vision  this  morning  of  a  future  May,  when  we,  the  peo- 
ple of  a  richer  and  more  splendid  Boston,  with  mayor 
and  governor,  and  troops  from  other  States,  and  every 
circumstance  of  ceremony,  should  meet  together  to 
celebrate  their  conduct  on  that  evening,  and  do  their 
memory  this  conspicuous  honor. 

How,  indeed,  comes  it  that  out  of  all  the  great  engage- 
ments of  the  war,  engagements  in  many  of  which  the 
troops  of  Massachusetts  had  borne  the  most  distinguished 
part,  this  officer,  only  a  young  colonel,  this  regiment  of 
black  men  and  its  maiden  battle,  —  a  battle,  moreover, 
which  was  lost,  —  should  be  picked  out  for  such  unusual 
commemoration  ? 

The  historic  importance  of  an  event  is  measured 
neither  by  its  material  magnitude,  nor  by  its  immediate 
success.  Thermopylae  was  a  defeat ;  but  to  the  Greek 
imagination,  Leonidas  and  his  few  Spartans  stood  for  the 
whole  worth  of  Grecian  life.  Bunker  Hill  was  a  defeat ; 
but  for  our  people,  the  fight  over  that  breastwork  has 
always  seemed  to  show  as  well  as  any  victory  that  our 
forefathers  were  men  of  a  temper  not  to  be  finally  over- 
come. And  so  here.  The  war  for  our  Union,  with  all 
the  constitutional  questions  which  it  settled,  and  all  the 
military  lessons  which  it  gathered  in,  has  throughout  its 
dilatory  length  but  one  meaning  in  the  eye  of  history. 
It  freed  the  country  from  the  social  plague  which  until 
then  had  made  political  development  impossible  in  the 
United  States.  More  and  more,  as  the  years  pass,  does 
that  meaning  stand  forth  as  the  sole  meaning.  And  no- 
where was  that  meaning  better  symbolized  and  embodied 
than  in  the  constitution  of  this  first  Northern  negro 
regiment. 

Look  at  that  monument  and  read  the  story — see  the 

40 


min^linor  0f  elements  which  the  sculptor's  genius  has  oration  by 
brought  so  vividly  before  the  eye.  There  on  foot  go  the  william  JAMES 
dark  outcasts,  so  true  to  nature  that  one  can  almost  hear 
them  breathing  as  they  march.  State  after  State  by  its 
laws  had  denied  them  to  be  human  persons.  The  South- 
ern leaders  in  congressional  debates,  insolent  in  their 
security  of  legalized  possession,  loved  most  to  designate 
them  by  the  contemptuous  collective  epithet  of  "  this 
peculiar  kind  of  property."  There  they  march,  warm- 
blooded champions  of  a  better  day  for  man.  There  on 
horseback,  among  them,  in  his  very  habit  as  he  lived, 
sits  the  blue-eyed  child  of  fortune,  upon  whose  happy 
youth  every  divinity  had  smiled.  Onward  they  move 
together,  a  single  resolution  kindled  in  their  eyes,  and 
animating  their  otherwise  so  different  frames.  The 
bronze  that  makes  their  memory  eternal  betrays  the  very 
soul  and  secret  of  those  awful  years. 

Since  the  'thirties  the  slavery  question  had  been  the 
only  question,  and  by  the  end  of  the  'fifties  our  land  lay 
sick  and  shaking  with  it  like  a  traveler  who  has  thrown 
himself  down  at  night  beside  a  pestilential  swamp,  and 
in  the  morning  finds  the  fever  through  the  marrow  of 
his  bones.  "  Only  muzzle  the  Abolition  fanatics,"  said  the 
"South,  "  and  all  will  be  well  again  !  "  But  the  Abolition- 
ists could  not  be  muzzled,  —  they  were  the  voice  of  the 
world's  conscience,  they  were  a  part  of  destiny.  Weak 
as  they  were,  they  drove  the  South  to  madness.  "  Every 
step  she  takes  in  her  blindness,"  said  Wendell  Phillips, 
"  is  one  more  step  towards  ruin."  And  when  South  Caro- 
lina took  the  final  step  in  battering  down  Fort  Sumter, 
it  was  the  fanatics  of  slavery  themselves  who  called  upon 
their  idolized  institution  ruin  swift  and  complete.  What 
law  and  reason  were  unable  to  accomplish,  had  now  to 
be  done  by  that  uncertain  and  dreadful  dispenser  of 
God's  judgments,  War  —  War,  with  its  abominably  casual, 

4i 


oration  by       inaccurate  methods,  destroying:  good  and  bad  together, 

PROFESSOR  .  .  .Hill  r    • 

william  james  but  at  last  unquestionably  able  to  new  a  way  out  ot  in- 
tolerable situations,  when  through  man's  delusion  or  per- 
versity every  better  way  is  blocked. 

Our  great  western  republic  had  from  its  very  origin 
been  a  singular  anomaly.  A  land  of  freedom,  boastfully 
so-called,  with  human  slavery  enthroned  at  the  heart  of 
it,  and  at  last  dictating  terms  of  unconditional  surrender 
to  every  other  organ  of  its  life,  what  was  it  but  a  thing 
of  falsehood  and  horrible  self-contradiction?  For  three 
quarters  of  a  century  it  had  nevertheless  endured,  kept 
together  by  policy,  compromise,  and  concession.  But  at 
last  that  republic  was  torn  in  two ;  and  truth  was  to  be 
possible  under  the  flag.  Truth,  thank  God,  truth !  even 
though  for  the  moment  it  must  be  truth  written  in  hell- 
fire. 

And  this,  fellow-citizens,  is  why,  after  the  great  gen- 
erals have  had  their  monuments,  and  long  after  the 
abstract  soldier's-monuments  have  been  reared  on  every 
village  green,  we  have  chosen  to  take  Robert  Shaw  and 
his  regiment  as  the  subjects  of  the  first  soldier's-monu- 
ment  to  be  raised  to  a  particular  set  of  comparatively 
undistinguished  men.  The  very  lack  of  external  compli- 
cation in  the  history  of  these  soldiers  is  what  makes 
them  represent  with  such  typical  purity  the  profounder 
meaning  of  the  Union  cause. 

Our  nation  had  been  founded  in  what  we  may  call  our 
American  religion,  baptized  and  reared  in  the  faith  that 
a  man  requires  no  master  to  take  care  of  him,  and  that 
common  people  can  work  out  their  salvation  well  enough 
together  if  left  free  to  try.  But  the  founders  of  the  Union 
had  not  dared  to  touch  the  great  intractable  exception ; 
and  slavery  had  wrought  and  spread,  until  at  last  the 
only  alternative  for  the  nation  was  to  fight  or  die.  What 
Shaw  and  his  comrades  stand  for  and  show  us  is  that  in 

42 


such  an  emergency  Americans  of  all  complexions  and  oration  t;y 

iiMii  i  11     l'KOlhSSOR 

conditions  can  go  forth  like  brothers,  and   meet  death  william  JAMES 
cheerfully  if  need  be,  in  order  that  this  religion  of  our 
native  land  shall  not  become  a  failure  on  the  earth. 

We  of  this  Commonwealth  believe  in  that  religion ; 
and  it  is  not  at  all  because  Robert  Shaw  was  an  excep- 
tional genius,  but  simply  because  he  was  faithful  to  it 
as  we  all  may  hope  to  be  faithful  in  our  measure  when 
occasion  serves,  that  we  wish  his  beautiful  image  to  stand 
here  for  all  time,  an  inciter  to  similarly  unselfish  public 
deeds. 

Shaw  thought  but  little  of  himself,  yet  he  had  a  per- 
sonal charm  which,  as  we  look  back  on  him,  makes  us 
say  with  the  poet:  "None  knew  thee  but  to  love  thee, 
none  named  thee  but  to  praise."  This  grace  of  nature 
was  united  in  him  in  the  happiest  way  with  a  filial  heart, 
a  cheerful  ready  will,  and  a  judgment  that  was  true  and 
fair.  And  when  the  war  came,  and  great  things  were 
doing  of  the  kind  that  he  could  help  in,  he  went  as  a 
matter  of  course  to  the  front.  What  country  under 
heaven  has  not  thousands  of  such  youths  to  rejoice  in, 
youths  on  whom  the  safety  of  the  human  race  depends? 
Whether  or  not  they  leave  memorials  behind  them, 
whether  their  names  are  writ  in  water  or  in  marble,  de- 
pends mostly  on  the  opportunities  which  the  accidents 
of  history  throw  into  their  path.  Shaw  recognized 
the  vital  opportunity :  he  saw  that  die  time  had  come 
when  the  colored  people  must  put  the  country  in  their 
debt. 

Colonel  Lee  has  just  told  us  something  about  the  ob- 
stacles with  which  this  idea  had  to  contend.  For  a  large 
party  of  us  this  was  still  exclusively  a  white  man's  war ; 
and  should  colored  troops  be  tried  and  not  succeed, 
confusion  would  grow  worse  confounded.  Shaw  was  a 
captain  in  the    Massachusetts  Second,  when   Governor 

43 


oration  by        Andrew  invited  him  to  take  the  lead  in  the  experiment. 

william  james  He  was  very  modest,  and  doubted,  for  a  moment,  his  own 
capacity  for  so  responsible  a  post.  We  may  also  imagine 
human  motives  whispering  other  doubts.  Shaw  loved 
the  Second  Regiment,  illustrious  already,  and  was  sure  of 
promotion  where  he  stood.  In  this  new  negro-soldier 
venture,  loneliness  was  certain,  ridicule  inevitable,  failure 
possible  ;  and  Shaw  was  only  twenty-five  ;  and,  although 
he  had  stood  among  the  bullets  at  Cedar  Mountain  and 
Antietam,  he  had  till  then  been  walking  socially  on  the 
sunny  side  of  life.  But  whatever  doubts  may  have  beset 
him,  they  were  over  in  a  day,  for  he  inclined  naturally 
towards  difficult  resolves.  He  accepted  the  proffered 
command,  and  from  that  moment  lived  but  for  one  ob- 
ject, to  establish  the  honor  of  the  Massachusetts  54th. 

I  have  had  the  privilege  of  reading  his  letters  to  his 
family  from  the  day  of  April  when,  as  a  private  in  the 
New  York  Seventh,  he  obeyed  the  President's  first  call. 
Some  day  they  must  be  published,  for  they  form  a  veri- 
table poem  for  serenity  and  simplicity  of  tone.  He  took 
to  camp  life  as  if  it  were  his  native  element,  and  (like  so 
many  of  our  young  soldiers)  he  was  at  first  all  eagerness 
to  make  arms  his  permanent  profession.  Drilling  and 
disciplining;  interminable  marching  and  countermarch- 
ing and  picket-duty  on  the  upper  Potomac  as  lieutenant 
in  the  Second  Massachusetts  Infantry,  to  which  post  he 
had  soon  been  promoted ;  pride  at  the  discipline  attained 
by  the  Second,  and  horror  at  the  bad  discipline  of  other 
regiments ;  these  are  the  staple  matter  of  the  earlier  let- 
ters, and  last  for  many  months.  These,  and  occasional 
more  recreative  incidents,  visits  to  Virginian  houses,  the 
reading  of  books  like  Napier's  "  Peninsular  War  "  or  the 
"  Idylls  of  the  King,"  Thanksgiving  feasts  and  races 
among  officers,  that  helped  the  weary  weeks  to  glide  away. 
Then  the  bloodier  business  opens,  and  the  plot  thickens 

44 


till  the  end  is  reached.      From  first  to  last  there  is  not  a  oration  by 

.  .       PROFESSOR 

rancorous   word   against   the    enemy,  —  often    quite    the  WILLIAM  JAMES 

reverse,  —  and  amid  all  the  scenes   of  hardship,  death, 

and  devastation  that  his  pen  soon  has  to  write  of,  there 

is  unfailing  cheerfulness  and  even  a  sort  of  innermost 

peace. 

After  he  left  it,  Robert  Shaw's  heart  still  clung  to  the 
fortunes  of  the  Second.  Months  later,  when  in  South 
Carolina  with  the  54th,  he  writes  to  his  young  wife: 
"  I  should  have  been  major  of  the  Second  now  if  I  had 
remained  there  and  lived  through  the  battles.  As  regards 
my  own  pleasure,  I  had  rather  have  that  place  than  any 
other  in  the  army.  It  would  have  been  fine  to  go  home 
a  field  officer  in  that  regiment !  Poor  fellows,  how  they 
have  been  slaughtered  !  " 

Meanwhile  he  had  well  taught  his  new  command  how 
to  do  their  duty ;  for  only  three  days  after  he  wrote  this 
he  led  them  up  the  parapet  of  Fort  Wagner,  where  he 
and  nearly  half  of  them  were  left  upon  the  ground. 

Robert  Shaw  quickly  inspired  others  with  his  own  love 
of  discipline.  There  was  something  almost  pathetic  in 
the  earnestness  with  which  both  the  officers  and  men 
of  the  54th  embraced  their  mission  of  showing  that  a 
black  regiment  could  excel  in  every  virtue  known  to 
man.  They  had  good  success,  and  the  54th  became 
a  model  in  all  possible  respects.  Almost  the  only  trace 
of  bitterness  in  Shaw's  whole  correspondence  is  over 
an  incident  in  which  he  thought  his  men  had  been 
morally  disgraced.  It  had  become  their  duty,  immedi- 
ately after  their  arrival  at  the  seat  of  war,  to  participate, 
in  obedience  to  fanatical  orders  from  the  head  of  the 
department,  in  the  sack  and  burning  of  the  inoffensive 
little  town  of  Darien  on  the  Georgia  coast.  "  I  fear,"  he 
writes  to  his  wife,  "  that  such  actions  will  hurt  the  repu- 
tation of  black  troops  and  of  those  connected  with  them. 

45 


oration  by  For  myself  I  have  gone  through  the  war  so  far  without 
william  james  dishonor,  and  I  do  not  like  to  degenerate  into  a  plun- 
derer and  a  robber,  —  and  the  same  applies  to  every 
officer  in  my  regiment.  After  going  through  the  hard 
campaigning  and  the  hard  righting  in  Virginia,  this 
makes  me  very  much  ashamed.  There  are  two  courses 
only  for  me  to  pursue  :  to  obey  orders  and  say  nothing ; 
or  to  refuse  to  go  upon  any  more  such  expeditions,  and 
be  put  under  arrest  and  probably  court-martialed,  which 
is  a  very  serious  thing."  Fortunately  for  Shaw,  the 
general  in  command  of  that  department  was  almost  im- 
mediately relieved. 

Four  weeks  of  camp  life  and  discipline  on  the  Sea  Is- 
lands, and  the  regiment  had  its  baptism  of  fire.  A  small 
affair,  but  it  proved  the  men  to  be  stanch.  Shaw  again 
writes  to  his  wife :  "  You  don't  know  what  a  fortunate 
day  this  has  been  for  me  and  for  us  all,  excepting  some 
poor  fellows  who  were  killed  and  wounded.  We  have 
fought  at  last  alongside  of  white  troops.  Two  hundred 
of  my  men  on  picket  this  morning  were  attacked  by  five 
regiments  of  infantry,  some  cavalry,  and  a  battery  of 
artillery.  The  ioth  Connecticut  were  on  their  left,  and 
say  they  would  have  had  a  bad  time  if  the  54th  men  had 
not  stood  so  well.  The  whole  division  was  under  arms 
in  fifteen  minutes,  and  after  coming  up  close  in  front 
of  us,  the  enemy,  finding  us  so  strong,  fell  back.  .  .  . 
General  Terry  sent  me  word  he  was  highly  gratified 
with  the  behavior  of  our  men,  and  the  officers  and  pri- 
vates of  other  regiments  praise  us  very  much.  All  this 
is  very  gratifying  to  us  personally,  and  a  fine  thing  for 
the  colored  troops.  I  know  this  will  give  you  pleasure, 
for  it  wipes  out  the  remembrance  of  the  Darien  affair, 
which  you  could  not  but  grieve  over,  though  we  were 
innocent  participators." 

The  adjutant  of  the  54th,  who  made  report  of  this 

46 


skirmish  to  General  Terry,  well  expresses  the  feelings  of  oration  ry 

..  ,  ...  Mi-i  i  PROFESSOR 

loneliness  that  still  prevailed  m  that  command  : —  WILLIAM  JAMES 

"  The  general's  favorite  regiment,"  writes  the  adju- 
tant,1 "  the  24th  Massachusetts  Infantry,  one  of  the  best 
that  had  so  far  faced  the  rebel  foe,  largely  officered  by 
Boston  men,  was  surrounding  his  headquarters.  It  had 
been  a  living  breathing  suspicion  with  us  —  perhaps  not 
altogether  justly  —  that  all  white  troops  abhorred  our 
presence  in  the  army,  and  that  the  24th  would  rather 
hear  of  us  in  some  remote  corner  of  the  Confederacy 
than  tolerate  us  in  the  advance  of  any  battle  in  which 
they  themselves  were  to  act  as  reserves  or  lookers-on. 
Can  you  not  then  readily  imagine  the  pleasure  which  I 
felt  as  I  alighted  from  my  horse,  before  General  Terry 
and  his  staff — I  was  going  to  say  his  unfriendly  staff, 
but  of  this  I  am  not  sure  —  to  report  to  him,  with 
Colonel  Shaw's  compliments,  that  we  had  repulsed  the 
enemy  without  the  loss  of  a  single  inch  of  ground. 
General  Terry  bade  me  mount  again  and  tell  Colonel 
Shaw  that  he  was  proud  of  the  conduct  of  his  men,  and 
that  he  must  still  hold  the  ground  against  any  future 
sortie  of  the  enemy.  You  can  even  now  share  with  me 
the  sensation  of  that  moment  of  soldierly  satisfaction." 

The  next  night  but  one  after  this  episode  was  spent 
by  the  54th  in  disembarking  on  Morris  Island  in  the 
rain,  and  at  noon  Colonel  Shaw  was  able  to  report  their 
arrival  to  General  Strong,  to  whose  brigade  he  was  as- 
signed. A  terrific  bombardment  was  playing  on  Fort 
Wagner,  then  the  most  formidable  earthwork  ever  built, 
and  the  general,  knowing  Shaw's  desire  to  place  his  men 
beside  white  troops,  said  to  him :  "  Colonel,  Fort  Wag- 
ner is  to  be  stormed  this  evening,  and  you  may  lead  the 

1  G.  W.  James:  "The  Assault  upon  Fort  Wagner,"  in  War  /'af>ers  read 
before  the  Commandery  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  Military  Order  of  the 
Loyal  Legion  of  the  U.  S.     Milwaukee,  1S91. 

47 


oration  by  column,  if  you  say  yes.  Your  men,  I  know,  are  worn 
william  james  out,  but  do  as  you  choose."  Shaw's  face  brightened. 
"  Before  answering  the  general,  he  instantly  turned  to 
me,"  writes  the  adjutant,  who  reports  the  interview,  "  and 
said,  '  Tell  Colonel  Hallowell  to  bring  up  the  54th  im- 
mediately.' " 

This  was  done,  and  just  before  nightfall  the  attack 
was  made.  Shaw  was  serious,  for  he  knew  the  assault 
was  desperate,  and  had  a  premonition  of  his  end.  Walk- 
ing up  and  down  in  front  of  the  regiment,  he  briefly 
exhorted  them  to  prove  that  they  were  men.  Then  he 
gave  the  order :  "  Move  in  quick  time  till  within  a  hun- 
dred yards,  then  double  quick  and  charge.  Forward !  " 
and  the  54th  advanced  to  the  storming,  its  colonel  and 
the  colors  at  its  head. 

On  over  the  sand,  through  a  narrow  defile  which 
broke  up  the  formation,  double  quick  over  the  chevaux 
de  frise,  into  the  ditch  and  over  it,  as  best  they  could, 
and  up  the  rampart ;  with  Fort  Sumter,  which  had  seen 
them,  playing  on  them,  and  Fort  Wagner,  now  one 
mighty  mound  of  fire,  tearing  out  their  lives.  Shaw  led 
from  first  to  last.  Gaining  successfully  the  parapet,  he 
stood  there  for  a  moment  with  uplifted  sword,  shouting 
"  Forward,  54th !  "  and  then  fell  headlong,  with  a  bullet 
thrbusfh  his  heart.  The  battle  rao;ed  for  niffh  two  hours. 
Regiment  after  regiment,  following  upon  the  54th, 
hurled  themselves  upon  its  ramparts,  but  Fort  Wagner 
was  nobly  defended,  and  for  that  night  stood  safe.  The 
54th  withdrew  after  two  thirds  of  its  officers  and  five 
twelfths  or  nearly  half  its  men  had  been  shot  down  or 
bayoneted  within  the  fortress  or  before  its  walls.  It  was 
good  behavior  for  a  regiment  no  one  of  whose  soldiers 
had  had  a  musket  in  his  hands  more  than  18  weeks, 
and  which  had  seen  the  enemy  for  the  first  time  only 
two  days  before. 

48 


"  The  negroes  fought  gallantly,"  wrote  a  Confederate  oration  by 

fc>  &         &  -"  PROFESSOR 

officer,  "and  were  headed  by  as  brave  a  colonel  as  ever  william JAMES 
lived." 

As  for  the  colonel,  not  a  drum  was  heard  nor  a  funeral 
note,  not  a  soldier  discharged  his  farewell  shot,  when  the 
Confederates  buried  him,  the  morning  after  the  engage- 
ment. His  body,  half  stripped  of  its  clothing,  and  the 
corpses  of  his  dauntless  negroes  were  flung  into  one 
common  trench  together,  and  the  sand  was  shoveled 
over  them,  without  a  stake  or  stone  to  signalize  the 
spot.  In  death  as  in  life,  then,  the  54th  bore  witness  to 
the  brotherhood  of  Man.  The  lover  of  heroic  history 
could  wish  for  no  more  fitting  sepulchre  for  Shaw's  mag- 
nanimous young  heart.  There  let  his  body  rest,  united 
with  the  forms  of  his  brave  nameless  comrades.  There 
let  the  breezes  of  the  Atlantic  sigh,  and  its  gales  roar 
their  requiem,  while  this  bronze  effigy  and  these  inscrip- 
tions keep  their  fame  alive  long  after  you  and  I  and  all 
who  meet  here  are  forgotten. 

How  soon,  indeed,  are  human  things  forgotten !  As 
we  meet  here  this  morning,  the  Southern  sun  is  shining 
on  their  place  of  burial,  and  the  waves  sparkling  and  the 
sea-gulls  circling  around  Fort  Wagner's  ancient  site. 
But  the  great  earthworks  and  their  thundering  cannon, 
the  commanders  and  their  followers,  the  wild  assault  and 
repulse  that  for  a  brief  space  made  night  hideous  on  that 
far-off  evening,  have  all  sunk  into  the  blue  gulf  of  the 
past,  and  for  the  majority  of  this  generation  are  hardly 
more  than  an  abstract  name,  a  picture,  a  tale  that  is  told. 
Only  when  some  yellow-bleached  photograph  of  a  soldier 
of  the  'sixties  comes  into  our  hands,  with  that  odd  and 
vivid  look  of  individuality  due  to  the  moment  when  it 
was  taken,  do  we  realize  the  concreteness  of  that  by- 
gone history,  and  feel  how  interminable  to  the  actors  in 
them  were  those  leaden-footed  hours  and   years.     The 

49 


oration  by  photographs  themselves  erelong  will  fade  utterly,  and 
william  james  books  of  history  and  monuments  like  this  alone  will 
tell  the  tale.  The  great  war  for  the  Union  will  be  like 
the  siege  of  Troy,  it  will  have  taken  its  place  amongst 
all  other  "  old,  unhappy,  far-off  things  and  battles  long 
ago." 

Ah,  my  friends,  and  may  the  like  of  it  never  be  re- 
quired of  us  again  ! 

It  is  hard  to  end  a  discourse  like  this  without  one  word 
of  moralizing ;  and  two  things  must  be  distinguished  in 
all  events  like  those  we  are  commemorating,  —  the  moral 
service  of  them  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  the 
physical  fortitude  which  they  display.  War  has  been 
much  praised  and  celebrated  among  us  of  late  as  a  school 
of  manly  virtue ;  but  it  is  easy  to  exaggerate  upon  this 
point.  Ages  ago,  war  was  the  gory  cradle  of  mankind, 
the  grim-featured  nurse  that  alone  could  train  our  savage 
progenitors  into  some  semblance  of  social  virtue,  teach 
them  to  be  faithful  one  to  another,  and  force  them  to 
sink  their  selfishness  in  wider  tribal  ends.  War  still  ex- 
cels in  this  prerogative ;  and  whether  it  be  paid  in  years 
of  service,  in  treasure,  or  in  life-blood,  the  war  tax  is  still 
the  only  tax  that  men  ungrudgingly  will  pay.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise,  when  the  survivors  of  one  success- 
ful massacre  after  another  are  the  beings  from  whose 
loins  we  and  all  our  contemporary  races  spring  ?  Man 
is  once  for  all  a  fighting  animal ;  centuries  of  peaceful 
history  could  not  breed  the  battle-instinct  out  of  us ;  and 
military  virtue  is  the  kind  of  virtue  least  in  need  of  rein- 
forcement by  reflection,  least  in  need  of  orator's  or  poet's 
help. 

What  we  really  need  the  poet's  and  orator's  help  to 
keep  alive  in  us  is  not,  then,  the  common  and  gregarious 
courage  which  Robert  Shaw  showed  when  he  marched 
with  you,  men  of  the  Seventh  Regiment.    It  is  that  more 

50 


lonely  courage  which  he  showed  when  he  dropped  his  oration  by 
warm  commission  in  the  glorious  Second  to  head  your  williamjames 
dubious  fortunes,  negroes  of  the  54th.  That  lonely  kind 
of  valor  (civic  courage  as  we  call  it  in  peace  times)  is  the 
kind  of  valor  to  which  the  monuments  of  nations  should 
most  of  all  be  reared,  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest  has 
not  bred  it  into  the  bone  of  human  beings  as  it  has  bred 
military  valor ;  and  of  five  hundred  of  us  who  could  storm 
a  battery  side  by  side  with  others,  perhaps  not  one  would 
be  found  ready  to  risk  his  worldly  fortunes  all  alone  in 
resisting  an  enthroned  abuse.  The  deadliest  enemies  of 
nations  are  not  their  foreign  foes;  they  always  dwell 
within  their  borders.  And  from  these  internal  enemies 
civilization  is  always  in  need  of  being  saved.  The  nation 
blest  above  all  nations  is  she  in  whom  the  civic  genius  of 
the  people  does  the  saving  day  by  day,  by  acts  without 
external  picturesqueness ;  by  speaking,  writing,  voting 
reasonably ;  by  smiting  corruption  swiftly ;  by  good  tem- 
per between  parties ;  by  the  people  knowing  true  men 
when  they  see  them,  and  preferring  them  as  leaders  to 
rabid  partisans  or  empty  quacks.  Such  nations  have  no 
need  of  wars  to  save  them.  Their  accounts  with  right- 
eousness are  always  even  ;  and  God's  judgments  do  not 
have  to  overtake  them  fitfully  in  bloody  spasms  and  con- 
vulsions of  the  race. 

The  lesson  that  our  war  ought  most  of  all  to  teach  us 
is  the  lesson  that  evils  must  be  checked  in  time,  before 
they  grow  so  great.  The  Almighty  cannot  love  such 
long-postponed  accounts,  or  such  tremendous  settlements. 
And  surely'  He  hates  all  settlements  that  do  such  quan- 
tities of  incidental  devils'  work.  Our  present  situation, 
with  its  rancors  and  delusions,  what  is  it  but  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  added  powers  of  government,  the  corrup- 
tions and  inflations  of  the  war  ?  Every  war  leaves  such 
miserable  legacies,  fatal  seeds  of  future  war  and  revolu- 

5i 


oration  by       tion,  unless  the  civic  virtues  of  the  people  save  the  State 

PROFESSOR  .  l        r 

William  james  in  time. 

Shaw  had  both  kinds  of  virtue.  As  he  then  led  his 
regiment  against  Fort  Wagner,  so  surely  would  he  now 
be  leading  us  against  all  lesser  powers  of  darkness,  had 
his  sweet  young  life  been  spared.  You  think  of  many  as 
I  speak  of  one.  For,  North  and  South,  how  many  lives 
as  sweet,  unmonumented  for  the  most  part,  commemo- 
rated solely  in  the  hearts  of  mourning  mothers,  wido'wed 
brides,  or  friends,  did  the  inexorable  war  mow  down ! 
Instead  of  the  full  years  of  natural  service  from  so  many 
of  her  children,  our  country  counts  but  their  poor  memo- 
ries, "  the  tender  grace  of  a  day  that  is  dead,"  lingering 
like  echoes  of  past  music  on  the  vacant  air. 

But  so  and  so  only  was  it  written  that  she  should  grow 
sound  again.  From  that  fatal  earlier  unsoundness  those 
lives  have  bought  for  North  and  South  together  perma- 
nent release.  The  warfare  is  accomplished  ;  the  iniquity 
is  pardoned.  No  future  problem  can  be  like  that  pro- 
blem. No  task  laid  on  our  children  can  compare  in  dif- 
ficulty with  the  task  with  which  their  fathers  have  to 
deal.  Yet  as  we  face  the  future,  tasks  enough  await  us. 
The  republic  to  which  Robert  Shaw  and  a  quarter  of  a 
million  like  him  were  faithful  unto  death  is  no  republic 
that  can  live  at  ease  hereafter  on  the  interest  of  what 
they  won.  Democracy  is  still  upon  its  trial.  The  civic 
genius  of  our  people  is  its  only  bulwark,  and  neither  laws 
nor  monuments,  neither  battleships  nor  public  libraries, 
nor  great  newspapers  nor  booming  stocks  ;  neither  me- 
chanical invention  nor  political  adroitness,  nor  churches 
nor  universities  nor  civil-service  examinations  can  save 
us  from  degeneration  if  the  inner  mystery  be  lost.  That 
mystery,  at  once  the  secret  and  the  glory  of  our  English- 
speaking  race,  consists  in  nothing  but  two  common  hab- 
its, two  inveterate  habits  carried  into  public  life,  —  habits 

52 


so  homely  that  they  lend  themselves  to  no  rhetorical  ex-  oration  by 

3         .     .  .    J  .  ,  ,  ,  PROFESSOR 

pression,  yet  habits  more  precious,  perhaps,  than  any  that  WILLIAM  james 

the  human  race  has  gained.     They  can  never  be  too  often 

pointed  out  or  praised.     One  of  them  is  the   habit   of 

trained  and  disciplined  good  temper  towards  the  opposite 

party  when  it  fairly  wins  its  innings ;  and  the  other,  that 

of  fierce  and  merciless  resentment  towards  every  man  or 

set  of  men  who  overstep  the  lawful  bounds  of  fairness  or 

break  the  public  peace. 

O  my  countrymen,  Southern  and  Northern,  brothers 
hereafter,  masters,  slaves,  and  enemies  no  more,  let  us 
see  to  it  that  both  of  those  heirlooms  are  preserved.  So 
may  our  ransomed  country,  like  the  city  of  the  promise, 
lie  forever  foursquare  under  Heaven,  and  the  ways  of  all 
the  nations  be  lit  up  by  its  light. 


53 


ADDRESS 


OF   PRESIDENT    BOOKER   T.    WASHINGTON, 
OF  TUSKEGEE    INSTITUTE 


OVERNOR  WOLCOTT:  "One  year  ago,  at  the 
Commencement  exercises  of  the  oldest  and  most 
famous  University  of  the  western  hemisphere,  there 
ifl^slf^t^  was  enacted  a  memorable  scene.  In  the  presence  of 
hundreds  of  the  Alumni  of  Harvard  College,  in  the  beautiful 
hall  dedicated  to  those  of  her  sons  who  gave  their  lives  to  their 
country's  need,  a  colored  man,  born  a  slave,  rose  to  receive  an 
honorary  degree  at  the  hands  of  the  President  of  the  University. 
It  was  not  the  first  time  that  a  degree  had  been  conferred  upon 
one  of  his  race.  But  in  previous  cases  this  distinction  had  been 
won  by  compliance  with  the  requisite  term  of  residence  and  by 
successfully  passing  certain  academic  examinations.  In  this 
case  the  honor  was  conferred  because  of  wise  leadership  of  his 
race,  and  of  sagacious  counsel  to  his  countrymen,  both  white 
and  black.  As  he  ceased  a  speech  that  burned  with  restrained 
passion,  and  yet  threw  the  calm,  clear  light  of  a  tempered  judg- 
ment upon  the  relations  of  the  two  races,  that  great  audience  was 
swept  by  wave  after  wave  of  enthusiastic  applause.  No  man 
can  more  eloquently  and  wisely  speak  for  the  race  which  furnished 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  54th  Regiment  than  Booker  T.  Washing- 
ton, of  Tuskegee,  Alabama." 


ADDRESS  OF 
BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

;R.  CHAIRMAN,  and  Fellow-Citizens:  In 
this  presence,  and  on  this  sacred  and  mem- 
orable day,  in  the  deeds  and  death  of  our 
hero,  we  recall  the  old,  old  story,  ever  old, 
yet  ever  new,  that  when  it  was  the  will  of 
the  Father  to  lift  humanity  out  of  wretchedness  and 
bondage,  the  precious  task  was  delegated  to  him  who 
among  ten  thousand  was  altogether  lovely,  and  was  will- 
ing to  make  himself  of  no  reputation  that  he  might  save 
and  lift  up  others. 

If  that  heart  could  throb  and  if  those  lips  could  speak, 
what  would  be  the  sentiment  and  words  that  Robert 
Gould  Shaw  would  have  us  feel  and  speak  at  this  hour? 
He  would  not  have  us  dwell  long  on  the  mistakes,  the 
injustice,  the  criticisms  of  the  days 

"  Of  storm  and  cloud,  of  doubt  and  fears 
Across  the  eternal  sky  must  lower 
Before  the  glorious  noon  appears." 

He  would  have  us  bind  up  with  his  own  undying  fame 
and  memory,  and  retain  by  the  side  of  his  monument,  the 
name  of  John  A.  Andrew,  who,  with  prophetic  vision 
and  strong  arm  helped  make  the  existence  of  the  54th 
Regiment  possible  ;  and  that  of  George  L.  Stearns,  who, 
with  hidden  generosity  and  a  great  sweet  heart,  helped 
to  turn  the  darkest  hour  into  day,  and  in  doing  so  freely 


address  of  gave  service,  fortune,  and  life  itself  to  the  cause  which  , 
Washington  this  day  commemorates.  Nor  would  he  have  us  forget 
those  brother  officers,  living  and  dead,  who,  by  their 
baptism  in  blood  and  fire,  in  defense  of  union  and  free- 
dom, gave  us  an  example  of  the  highest  and  purest 
patriotism. 

To  you  who  fought  so  valiantly  in  the  ranks,  the 
scarred  and  scattered  remnant  of  the  54th  Regiment,  who 
with  empty  sleeve  and  wanting  leg  have  honored  this 
occasion  with  your  presence,  —  to  you  your  commander 
is  not  dead.  Though  Boston  erected  no  monument,  and 
history  recorded  no  story,  in  you  and  the  loyal  race 
which  you  represent,  Robert  Gould  Shaw  would  have  a 
monument  which  time  could  not  wear  away. 

But  an  occasion  like  this  is  too  great,  too  sacred,  for 
mere  individual  eulogy.  The  individual  is  the  instru- 
ment, national  virtue  the  end.  That  which  was  three 
hundred  years  being  woven  into  the  warp  and  woof  of 
our  democratic  institutions  could  not  be  effaced  by  a 
single  battle,  as  magnificent  as  was  that  battle;  that 
which  for  three  centuries  had  bound  master  and  slave, 
yea,  North  and  South,  to  a  body  of  death,  could  not  be 
blotted  out  by  four  years  of  war,  could  not  be  atoned  for 
by  shot  and  sword,  nor  by  blood  and  tears. 

Not  many  days  ago,  in  the  heart  of  the  South,  in  a 
large  gathering  of  the  people  of  my  race,  there  were 
heard  from  many  lips  praises  and  thanksgiving  to  God 
for  his  goodness  in  setting  them  free  from  physical  slavery. 
In  the  midst  of  that  assembly  a  Southern  white  man 
arose,  with  gray  hair  and  trembling  hands,  the  former 
owner  of  many  slaves,  and  from  his  quivering  lips  there 
came  the  words :  "  My  friends,  you  forget  in  your  rejoi- 
cing that  in  setting  you  free  God  was  also  good  to  me 
and  my  race  in  setting  us  free."  But  there  is  a  higher 
and  deeper  sense  in  which  both  races  must  be  free  than 

53 


that  represented  by  the  bill  of  sale.  The  black  man  who  address  of 
cannot  let  love  and  sympathy  go  out  to  the  white  man  is  WASHINGTON 
but  half  free.  The  white  man  who  would  close  the  shop 
or  factory  against  a  black  man  seeking  an  opportunity  to 
earn  an  honest  living  is  but  half  free.  The  white  man 
who  retards  his  own  development  by  opposing  a  black 
man  is  but  half  free.  The  full  measure  of  the  fruit  of 
Fort  Wagner  and  all  that  this  monument  stands  for  will 
not  be  realized  until  every  man  covered  by  a  black  skin 
shall,  by  patience  and  natural  effort,  grow  to  that  height  in 
industry,  property,  intelligence,  and  moral  responsibility, 
where  no  man  in  all  our  land  will  be  tempted  to  degrade 
himself  by  withholding  from  his  black  brother  any  op- 
portunity which  he  himself  would  possess. 

Until  that  time  comes,  this  monument  will  stand  for 
effort,  not  victory  complete.  What  these  heroic  souls  of 
the  54th  Regiment  began,  we  must  complete.  It  must 
be  completed  not  in  malice,  nor  narrowness,  nor  artificial 
progress,  nor  in  efforts  at  mere  temporary  political  gain, 
nor  in  abuse  of  another  section  or  race.  Standino-  as  I 
do  to-day  in  the  home  of  Garrison  and  Phillips  and  Sum- 
ner, my  heart  goes  out  to  those  who  wore  the  gray  as 
well  as  to  those  clothed  in  blue,  to  those  who  returned 
defeated  to  destitute  homes,  to  face  blasted  hopes  and 
shattered  political  and  industrial  system.  To  them  there 
can  be  no  prouder  reward  for  defeat  than  by  a  supreme 
effort  to  place  the  negro  on  that  footing  where  he  will 
add  material,  intellectual,  and  civil  strength  to  every 
department  of  state. 

This  work  must  be  completed  in  public  school,  indus- 
trial school,  and  college.  The  most  of  it  must  be  com- 
pleted in  the  effort  of  the  negro  himself ;  in  his  effort  to 
withstand  temptation,  to  economize,  to  exercise  thrift,  to 
disregard  the  superficial  for  the  real,  the  shadow  for 
the  substance,  to  be  great  and  yet  small ;  in  his  effort  to 

59 


address  of  be  patient  in  the  laying  of  a  firm  foundation,  to  so  grow 
Washington  in  skill  and  knowledge  that  he  shall  place  his  services  in 
demand  by  reason  of  his  intrinsic  and  superior  worth. 
This,  this  is  the  key  that  unlocks  every  door  of  oppor- 
tunity, and  all  others  fail.  In  this  battle  of  peace,  the 
rich  and  poor,  the  black  and  white  may  have  a  part. 

What  lesson  has  this  occasion  for  the  future  ?  What 
of  hope,  what  of  encouragement,  what  of  caution  ? 
"  Watchman,  tell  us  of  the  night,  what  the  signs  of 
promise  are."  If  through  me,  an  humble  representative, 
nearly  ten  millions  of  my  people  might  be  permitted  to 
send  a  message  to  Massachusetts,  to  the  survivors  of  the 
54th  Regiment,  to  the  committee  whose  untiring  energy 
has  made  this  memorial  possible,  to  the  family  who  gave 
their  only  boy  that  we  might  have  life  more  abundantly, 
that  message  would  be :  Tell  them  that  the  sacrifice  was 
not  in  vain,  that  up  from  the  depths  of  ignorance  and 
poverty  we  are  coming,  and  if  we  come  through  oppres- 
sion, out  of  the  struggle  we  are  gaining  strength  ;  by 
way  of  the  school,  the  well-cultivated  field,  the  skilled 
hand,  the  Christian  home,  we  are  coming  up ;  that  we 
propose  to  invite  all  who  will  to  step  up  and  occupy  this 
position  with  us.  Tell  them  that  wre  are  learning  that 
standing  ground  for  a  race,  as  for  an  individual,  must  be 
laid  in  intelligence,  industry,  thrift,  and  property,  not  as 
an  end,  but  as  a  means  to  the  highest  privileges  ;  that  we 
are  learning  that  neither  the  conqueror's  bullet,  nor  fiat 
of  law,  could  make  an  ignorant  voter  an  intelligent  voter, 
could  make  a  dependent  man  an  independent  man,  could 
give  one  citizen  respect  for  another,  a  bank  account, 
a  foot  of  land,  or  an  enlightened  fireside.  Tell  them 
that,  as  grateful  as  we  are  to  artist  and  patriotism  for 
placing  the  figures  of  Shaw  and  his  comrades  in  physical 
form  of  beauty  and  magnificence,  that  after  all  the  real 
monument,  the  greater  monument,  is  being  slowly  but 

60 


safely   builded   amono-   the   lowly   in   the   South,   in    the  address  by 

1  1  -r  r  •        j.-r  11      W       .      1  BOOKER  T. 

struggles  and  sacrifices  ot  a  race  to  justily  all  that  has  WASHINGTON 
been  done  and  suffered  for  it. 

One  of  the  wishes  that  lay  nearest  to  Colonel  Shaw's 
heart  was,  that  his  black  troops  might  be  permitted  to 
fight  by  the  side  of  white  soldiers.  Have  we  not  lived  to 
see  that  wish  realized,  and  will  it  not  be  more  so  in  the 
future  ?  Not  at  Wagner,  not  with  rifle  and  bayonet,  but 
on  the  field  of  peace,  in  the  battle  of  industry,  in  the 
struggle  for  good  government,  in  the  lifting  up  of  the 
lowest  to  the  fullest  opportunities.  In  this  we  shall  fight 
by  the  side  of  white  men  North  and  South.  And  if  this 
be  true,  as  under  God's  guidance  it  will  that  old  flag, 
that  emblem  of  progress  and  security  which  brave  Ser- 
geant Carney  never  permitted  to  fall  upon  the  ground, 
will  still  be  borne  aloft  by  Southern  soldier  and  Northern 
soldier,  and  in  a  more  potent  and  higher  sense  we  shall 
all  realize  that 

"The  slave's  chain  and  the  master's 

Alike  are  broken. 
The  one  curse  of  the  races 

Held  both  in  tether  : 
They  are  rising,  —  all  are  rising, 

The  black  and  white  together  !  " 


61 


HISTORY  OF  THE    SHAW  MONUMENT 

BY   THE  TREASURER   OF   THE   FUND 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SHAW  MONUMENT 


BY   THE    TREASURER   OF   THE   FUND 


N  the  autumn  of  1865  a  meeting  was  held 
in  the  council  chamber  at  the  State  House, 
at  the  call  of  Governor  Andrew,  Dr.  Sam- 
uel G.  Howe,  Senator  Charles  Sumner, 
Colonel  Henry  Lee,  Mr.  J.  B.  Smith,  and 
others,  to  consider  the  matter  of  a  suitable  memorial  to 
Robert  G.  Shaw,  the  late  commander  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Fifty-fourth  Regiment.  The  prime  mover  in  this 
matter  was  doubtless  the  late  Joshua  B.  Smith,  a  fugitive 
from  slavery,  who  after  his  escape  had  been  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Colonel  Shaw's  family  before  he  took  the  position 
of  repute  as  the  successful  caterer,  in  which  he  became 
so  well  known  in  Boston.  The  purpose  of  the  meeting 
was  declared  in  the  following  words :  — 

"  The  monument  is  intended  not  only  to  mark  the 
public  gratitude  to  the  fallen  hero,  who  at  a  critical  mo- 
ment assumed  a  perilous  responsibility,  but  also  to  com- 
memorate that  great  event,  wherein  he  was  a  leader,  by 
which  the  title  of  colored  men  as  citizen-soldiers  was 
fixed  beyond  recall.  In  such  a  work  all  who  honor 
youthful  dedication  to  a  noble  cause  and  who  rejoice  in 
the  triumph  of  freedom  should  have  an  opportunity  to 
contribute." 

I  was  not  myself  present  at  that  meeting.     A  com- 


history  of       mittee  was  appointed  to  carry  this  purpose  into  effect, 

THE    SHAW  . 

monument  consisting  of  John  A.  Andrew,  chairman ;  Charles  Sum- 
ner, Joshua  B.  Smith,  Henry  P.  Kidder,  Charles  R.  Cod- 
man,  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  James  L.  Little,  William  W. 
Clapp,  Jr.,  Charles  Beck,  William  G.  WTeld,  Leonard  A. 
Grimes,  Royal  E.  Robbins,  Robert  E.  Apthorp,  Francis 
W.  Bird,  Edward  W.  Kinsley,  George  B.  Loring,  Alan- 
son  W.  Beard,  Solomon  B.  Stebbins,  Robert  K.  Darrah ; 
Charles  W.  Slack,  secretary. 

As  I  am  informed,  there  had  been  some  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  the  kind  of  statue  or  memorial  which 
should  be  procured.  At  the  request  of  Senator  Sumner 
I  undertook  to  serve  as  the  treasurer,  with  the  under- 
standing that  my  sole  duty  would  be  the  custody  of 
the  funds.  I  believe  that  no  one  was  ever  asked  to 
subscribe;  all  the  contributions  have  been  of  a  purely 
voluntary  character,  most  gladly  given.  Within  the  next 
two  or  three  months  after  the  meeting  the  sum  of  three 
thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  dollars  ($3161)  had 
been  placed  in  my  hands. 

The  death  of  Governor  Andrew  soon  after  occurred, 
and  later  several  of  the  chief  promoters  of  this  memorial, 
including  Senator  Sumner,  passed  away.  The  interest 
in  the  subject  appeared  to  have  ceased  for  the  moment. 

In  1876  the  fund  had  reached  a  little  over  seven  thou- 
sand dollars  ($7000)  by  investment  and  reinvestment. 

As  there  appeared  to  be  no  effective  committee  in 
charge  of  this  matter,  and  believing  that  a  small,  well- 
chosen  committee  would  be  more  likely  to  act  in  a  judi- 
cious manner  than  a  large  one,  the  suggestion  was  made 
to  all  the  subscribers  to  appoint  Messrs.  John  M.  Forbes, 
Henry  Lee,  and  Martin  P.  Kennard  as  such  committee, 
and  their  written  assent  and  approval '  were  obtained 
thereto. 

Some  previously  unpaid  subscriptions  were  then  called 

66 


in  and  several  additional  subscriptions  were  volunteered,  history  of 

11  i  i.  •        i   r  i  J  lll;    SHAW 

so  that  the  total  amount  actually  received  irom  subscn-  monument 
bers  was  raised  a  trifle  over  seventy-five  hundred  dollars 
(#7521)-     The  names  of  the  subscribers  were  as  follows: 

George  C.  Ward,  Mrs.  Lydia  Jackson,  Hon.  Charles 
Sumner,  Mrs.  John  E.  Lodge,  N.  Livermore  &  Son,  Mrs. 
Maria  Weston  Chapman,  William  G.  Weld,  Samuel  G. 
Ward,  S.  N.  Havens,  John  Fenno  Tudor,  Henry  Sturgis 
Grew,  and  George  O.  Hovey,  of  Boston,  Mass.;  Richard 
Warren  Weston,  Horace  Gray,  Lucius  Tuckcrman, 
Edward  F.  Davison,  Daniel  C.  Bacon,  and  Robert  B. 
Minturn,  of  New  York,  N.  Y. ;  F.  J.  Child,  Robert  B. 
Storer,  James  Russell  Lowell,  and  Charles  E.  Norton,  of 
Cambridge,  Mass. ;  Edward  Atkinson,  Henry  Lee,  and 
Martin  P.  Kennard,  of  Brookline,  Mass.;  Alexander  H. 
Bullock  and  Ichabod  Washburn,  of  Worcester,  Mass.; 
Samuel  May,  Jr.,  and  Mrs.  J.  C.  Gunn,  of  Leicester, 
Mass.;  Zenas  M.  Crane,  of  Dalton,  Mass.;  John  M. 
Forbes,  of  Milton,  Mass. ;  Edmund  Tweedy,  of  Mil- 
waukee, Wis. ;  Robert  Ferguson,  of  Morton,  Carlisle, 
England. 

In  1883  the  fund  having  reached  nearly  seventeen 
thousand  dollars  ($17,000),  it  seemed  to  be  time  to  move 
for  the  execution  of  the  work.  A  desire  had  been  ex- 
pressed to  me  by  Senator  Sumner  that  the  work  should 
consist  of  a  statue  of  Colonel  Shaw  mounted,  in  very 
high  relief  upon  a  large  bronze  tablet. 

A  suitable  place  for  such  a  work  seemed  to  be  in  the 
curve  on  the  front  of  the  State  House  where  a  tablet  of 
moderate  size  could  be  placed  in  the  wall,  rising  a  little 
above  it  with  a  seat  at  the  level  of  the  sidewalk.  Appli- 
cation was  made  through  Governor  Long,  with  his  hearty 
approval,  for  a  right  to  place  the  tablet  at  this  point 
if  such  a  work  should  be  executed,   and  was  cheerfully 


granted. 


67 


history  of  Happening  to  call  upon  my  neighbor  and  friend,  the 

monument  late  H.  H.  Richardson,  he  desired  to  know  what  action 
had  been  taken,  if  any,  having  a  great  personal  interest 
in  his  memory  of  Colonel  Shaw  and  being  desirous  that 
the  work  should  be  one  of  highest  merit.  On  the  sub- 
mission of  the  plan  for  an  alto-relievo  in  front  of  the 
State  House,  he  gave  his  most  earnest  assent,  offering 
his  services  to  do  the  architectural  work  and  suggesting 
Augustus  St.  Gaudens  as  the  sculptor,  whose  statue  of 
Admiral  Farragut  had  so  lately  called  attention  to  his 
great  skill. 

It  was  then  suggested  to  the  committee  that  the  surest 
way  to  carry  out  our  plans  would  be  to  select  an  artist 
without  confusing  ourselves  with  any  competition.  The 
contract  was  accordingly  made  with  Mr.  St.  Gaudens  on 
February  23,  1884,  in  the  hope  and  expectation  that  an 
alto-relievo  suitable  to  the  place  chosen  would  be  put  in 
position  in  two  years.  But  as  Mr.  St.  Gaudens  dealt 
with  the  subject  it  grew  upon  him  in  its  importance,  and 
with  that  conscientious  spirit  which  marks  the  true  artist 
he  has  devoted  the  better  part  of  twelve  years  to  con- 
stant thought  and  work  upon  his  grand  design. 

As  the  artist's  conception  developed,  the  size  of  the 
panel  became  too  great  for  the  space  originally  chosen. 
The  suggestion  was  then  made  by  the  late  Arthur  Rotch 
to  place  it  on  the  Common  between  the  two  great  trees 
where  it  now  stands. 

Mr.  Charles  F.  McKim,  the  architect  who  succeeded 
Mr.  Richardson  as  the  artist's  adviser,  had  become  greatly 
interested  in  the  matter  and  had  volunteered  his  services 
for  the  architectural  work.  How  great  this  service  had 
been  could  not  become  apparent  until  the  unveiling. 
Suffice  it  that  the  architectural  design  is  on  the  hisrh 
plane  of  the  bronze  tablet  which  it  sustains.  His  admi- 
rable design  having  been  sketched,  an  application  was 

68 


made  by  Mr.  George  von  L.  Meyer,  then  an  alderman  of  history  of 
the  city  of  Boston,  for  an  appropriation  on  the  part  of  monument 
the  city  for  the  construction  of  the  terrace  and  stone 
work  in  which  the  bronze  tablet  has  now  been  placed 
upon  the  Common.  With  judicious  liberality  a  contract 
was  made  by  the  City  Government  with  Norcross  Bro- 
thers for  the  execution  of  this  work,  at  a  cost  of  nearly 
twenty  thousand  dollars  ($20,000). 

In  this  long  interval,  the  funds  which  were  placed  on 
deposit  in  the  New  England  Trust  Company  as  soon  as 
the  contract  had  been  made  have  gradually  accumulated, 
until  the  original  subscriptions  of  a  little  over  seventy- 
five  hundred  dollars  ($7521)  will  yield  nearly  twenty- 
three  thousand  dollars  ($23,000).  But  even  then,  when 
the  artist  shall  have  paid  the  heavy  cost  of  casting  in 
bronze,  and  also  paid  for  all  the  necessary  skilled  work 
required  in  preparing  for  the  founder,  he  may  secure  to 
his  own  use  and  benefit  only  the  fair  day's  wages  of  a 
good  stonecutter  or  stucco  worker  for  the  time  which 
during  the  term  he  has  devoted  to  this  the  great  effort 
of  his  lifetime.  Even  that  is  doubtful,  because  with  that 
conscientious  determination  to  have  everything  right 
and  suitable  he  has  felt  compelled  to  change  in  some 
respects  the  design  of  the  marble  frame  and  the  form 
of  the  lettering,  so  that  there  may  "be  extra  charges  in- 
curred by  his  orders  to  the  amount  of  two  thousand  or 
three  thousand  dollars  ($3000)  in  the  construction  of  the 
terrace  and  the  marble  framework  above  the  contract, 
which  perhaps  it  will  be  suitable  for  the  city  to  defray 
in  view  of  the  credit  and  honor  which  is  sure  to  come  to 
Boston  in  the  possession  of  such  an  imperishable  work. 

It  is  not  often  that  one  who  has  no  artistic  aptitude 
comes  into  such  close  relation  with  the  evolution  of  a 
monument  Had  I  the  right  knowledge  of  technical 
terms,  I  should  be  inclined  to  give  a  little  account  of  my 

69  ' 


history  of  observations  during  the  progress  of  this  memorial.  Few 
monument  persons  can  have  the  slightest  conception  of  the  energy 
which  a  great  artist  must  expend,  not  only  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  work  itself,  but  in  the  actual  effort,  physi- 
cal, mechanical,  and  manual,  which  is  necessary  to  bring 
that  conception  into  imperishable  bronze ;  the  amount 
of  work  required  from  skilled  workmen  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  artist  in  the  process  of  converting  his  own 
conception  from  the  clay  model,  first  into  plaster,  then 
into  the  mould,  and  lastly,  into  the  bronze,  is  something 
of  which  the  writer  for  one  had  no  previous  conception. 

For  the  rest,  the  work  will  speak  for  itself.  The  com- 
mittee and  the  treasurer  alike  sometimes  feared  that  the 
artist  might  not  live  long  enough  to  complete  this  great 
work.  Now  that  it  is  done,  and  that  they  themselves 
will  have  the  satisfaction  of  placing  it  in  the  custody  of 
the  city  and  the  State,  they  feel  that  they  will  have  been 
fully  justified  and  that  their  method  of  procuring  this 
monument  may  be  approved. 

Of  the  twenty-one  members  of  the  original  committee 
appointed  to  take  action  in  the  matter,  but  four  now  sur- 
vive. 

Among  the  misgivings  of  the  treasurer  while  watch- 
ing the  progress  of  this  work  in  the  mere  process  of 
manufacture  had  been  the  fear  that  so  extensive  and 
difficult  a  casting  might  fail  in  its  execution ;  but  when 
the  contract  was  made  with  the  Gorham  Manufacturing 
Company,  his  anxiety  was  almost  wholly  removed,  and 
his  previous  fears  have  proved  to  be  without  cause. 

Some  exceptions  have  been  taken  to  the  decision  of 
the  committee  to  have  the  addresses  made  in  the  Music 
Hall  rather  than  at  the  monument  itself ;  but  after  full 
consideration  of  the  matter,  and  in  view  of  the  present 
condition  of  the  State  House  and  the  grounds,  there 
seemed  to  be  no  alternative.     The  space  which  would 

70 


have  remained  available  for  those  who  have  the  direct  history  of 
and  most  personal  interest  in  this  matter,  after  providing  monument 
for  officials  and  for  the  passing  of   the  military  at  the 
monument,  was  found  to  be  wholly  insufficient  for  any 
suitable  arrangements  in  the  open  air. 

The  committee  and  the  treasurer,  representing  the 
subscribers,  have  been  placed  by  the  circumstances  of 
the  case  in  the  position  of  hosts,  inviting  the  authorities 
of  the  city,  the  State,  and  other  guests  to  be  present  at 
the  unveiling  of  the  monument.  The  writer  may  be 
permitted  to  say  that  most  careful  supervision  has  been 
given,  especially  by  Colonel  Lee,  to  the  distribution  of 
the  tickets  to  the  hall,  to  the  end  that  no  one  might  be 
forgotten  who  had  even  a  remote  claim  to  be  present ; 
yet  it  may  happen  that  some  have  been  overlooked. 

The  committee  requested  General  Francis  H.  Apple- 
ton,  of  the  governor's  staff,  to  act  as  chief  marshal,  and 
to  his  most  effective  preparation  are  due  the  excellent 
arrangements  for  the  military  parade  on  Decoration  Day 
and  for  caring  for  the  guests  in  the  hall. 

It  is  in  order  that  those  who  were  present  may  have 
knowledge  of  all  the  facts  and  of  the  names  of  the  sub- 
scribers,  so  few  of  whom  are  living,  that  this  statement  is 
now  submitted. 

The  service  of  Mr.  John  B.  Seward  should  be  recog- 
nized ;  he  has  kept  the  accounts  and  held  supervision 
over  all  matters  connected  with  the  trust,  in  order  that 
there  might  be  no  confusion  in  case  of  accident  to  the 
undersigned. 

Edward  Atkinson, 
Treasurer  Shaw  Monument  Fund. 
Boston,  May  22,  1S97. 


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BOSTON  COLLEGE 


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